Nasa data shows no reduction in crop fires, 2016 worst year

NEW DELHI: Crop fires have steadily increased in Punjab and Haryana since 2002, an analysis of Nasa satellite data suggests, contradicting official claims that a number of policies have been implemented to curb the practice of paddy stubble burning. A study by Nasa research scientist Hiren Jethva found that crop fires are on the rise, with the highest number of hotspots detected in 2016. Jethva’s research also suggests that the increase in crop fires (about 500 per year between 2002 and 2016) could be linked to rising crop production in the region. He analysed data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor on Aqua satellite to track annual crop fire numbers. In his blog on the Nasa Earth Observatory website published earlier this year, Jethva also analysed normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) — a measure for greenness that can indicate crop or vegetation cover. “There seems to be a one-on-one relationship in NDVI measured by the MODIS sensor prior to harvest (September) and the total number of fire hotspots observed during the harvest season (October and November). This suggest that the increase in the number of fires is likely related to increasing crop production,” the blog says. Jethva also refers to data from the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, department of agriculture, which says post-monsoon, rice crop production has increased at a linear rate of 0.18 million tonnes from 2002 to 2016 in Punjab. On November 5 last year, Delhi had suffered its worst smog episode in 17 years with average PM2.5 levels 14 times the 24-hour standard. In October-November last year, there were nearly 18,000 crop fires in Punjab and Haryana put together — the highest since 2002. The number of fires reduced in 2017 — to a little more than 12,000 — but still had a huge impact on air quality in NCR, according to experts. The impact of crop fires on air quality is accentuated by hostile meteorological conditions. During this smog episode, for example, ground wind speed was very low on most days, but wind direction was from north and northwest through Punjab and Haryana where crop stubble is being burnt over large stretches. IMD said mixing heights (also called boundary conditions) — the levels at which ground level winds mix with the higher winds and allow dispersion — has been extremely low, leading to a high concentration of pollution particles. But crop fires are also ruining soil health and depleting groundwater resources massively in these states. According to Ramanjaneyulu G V, executive director at Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, burning also leads to an immediate decline in the bacterial and fungal population in the top 2.5cm of the soil. Repeated burning permanently diminishes the bacterial population by more than 50%, increasing farmers’ dependence on fertlisers and pesticides. He added that the problem of crop stubble burning started increasing since 2002. “The depletion of groundwater levels made Punjab come up with a law in 2009, which makes sowing of paddy before June 15 a criminal offence. The law allows agriculture department officers to destroy the nursery or transplanted paddy. The uprooting costs are to be borne by farmers. The Act levies a penalty of Rs10,000 per hectare per month on the farmers who contravene it. It even allows field officers to disconnect power supply to a farmer’s field till the notified date if the farmer is found violating the law repeatedly. This left a very small window for farmers between kharif harvest and rabi sowing, forcing them to resort to burn off,” Ramanjaneyulu said. He added: “The prices of paddy have not increased in the last 10 years. As a result, farmers also felt spending more amount on removal of stubbles is not economically viable … so they burn off.” Farmers from various farmer groups, including the Bharatiya Kisan Union, say an important factor could be increasing labour costs, which have led to more farmers taking up mechanised harvesting by using combines to harvest both paddy and wheat. “Labour costs have increased drastically, it’s very difficult to find labour as well. So, more and more farmers have no option but to use combines to harvest crop, which leaves a stubble of about 1.5 feet. Earlier, once manually harvested, the stubble was used for fodder and manure, but you need labour to do all that. When you can generate electricity, make paper with crop stubble, why isn’t it being done?” asks Dharmendra Kumar of BKU. Kumar alleged that “the reason farmers are being blamed now with these studies is because people in cities don’t want to restrict their polluting cars. They want to live in comfort and blame the farmers for pollution”. Many farmers say they want to give up paddy cultivation, but can’t — because procurement prices for other crops are not fair. “Solutions lie in finding uses for the stubble and assigning real economic value to it, so that burning is an economic loss to the farmer. Solutions are well known, in terms of infield use as manure to reduce fertilizer cost or generate power, or make fuel and material. But there is no clear strategy to build business cases around these solutions to scale or provide support to farmers to use this as manure,” said Anumita Roy Chowdhury, head of Centre for Science and Environment’s clean air campaign.